Issue #2339
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
The expression "small beer" – derived from a name for beer with very little alcohol content – refers to something that’s insignificant.
Example (as used by Jerry Coyne in The New York Times): "Call me a geek, but for biologists, marvels like the parasitic flatworm are on tap every day, making the reveries of Hollywood seem like small beer."
Have you ever wondered where the knack for finding stories and hooks — the main ingredients of any great copywriter’s bag of tricks — comes from?
Here is my insight (after a couple of decades on the advertising front lines): It comes from observing life as an ongoing movie. With characters, story angles, plot twists, and endings that arrive like punch lines.
This is how the legendary copywriters I’ve known go through their day… seeing nearly everything in terms of a movie script. It’s an unconscious habit, and wickedly effective at keeping your writing chops chugging on all cylinders.
Even the most mundane errand can be retold as a raucous tale full of shocking revelation when you put this talent to work. Nothing interesting or weird or funny gets by a top scribe.
So, when faced with clients needing killer ads… it’s easy to find, and flesh out, the stories hidden in products, campaigns, and markets. Because it’s all a movie.
Think about your own life.
No, seriously. Think about it.
Most people have trouble "seeing" themselves in the world at all. Without a mirror, they’re not even sure they exist. Their daily experiences are like watching a "monkey cam" – the filmed result of attaching a camera to the back of a chimp and letting him wander off.
It’s not a smooth, thought-out, coherent narrative. Instead, it’s jerky, chaotic, and (unless there are "happy accidents") mostly boring.
There. I’ve said it.
Most people lead boring lives.
For any savvy copywriter, that’s a tremendous advantage. All you have to do… is be the one thing your bored-to-death prospect reads today that gets his blood moving. And you’re well on your way to closing the sale.
Again, think about your life.
Consider how it has progressed in actual chapters, or acts… just like a long-running serial flick.
Maybe your story is as straightforward as childhood, adulthood, starting a biz, getting married.
Or maybe it’s more nuanced, in peculiar ways that make sense to you… but may sound exotic to outsiders. I know one guy, for example, who catalogs his past using whichever car was in his life at the time: The ancient ‘55 Buick Special (junior year in high school), the only slightly abused ‘67 Mustang (freshman year of college), the brand-spanking-new Toyota (first full-time job), the Pontiac mini-van (first kid), etc.
This guy will fry your ear with great stories, too. All starring him and his wheels.
The more precise and anchored you can be, the better your stories will become.
And the better your OWN parcel of stories is, the easier you can spot – and use – stories from the world around you when you’re writing to influence and persuade.
I was lucky to grow up in a family of storytellers. And since I was the youngest by eight years, I learned quickly to be pithy and interesting… or risk losing the attention of my audience. (Few adults have much patience for meandering stories with no point, even from their own kids.)
The trick is to focus on short, crisp, rollicking tales that get to the payoff quickly. With a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or, like a good joke, with a premise, a set-up, and a punch line.
In fact, I suggest you start crafting your tales – both the personal and professional – in three brisk sentences.
They can be serious or funny or rueful or just hmmm -inducing snippets of action.
But they must be complete stories.
So start editing, with an audience in mind. For example: "Suzy and I, at 17, started out convinced no one had ever felt a love so wild and crazy before. However, that dizzy high of shared hormonal bliss… was cruelly followed by heartache and misery when her attention shifted away from me. And I ended up as a sad, sad boy, convinced no one had ever felt such pain before."
Set-up, plot synopsis, and tidy ending with a hook (the "completed circle" of the phrase convinced no one had ever felt...). You can go into more specifics (should your audience crave it), but you’ve laid out the story very efficiently here.
If the point you were trying to make… say, in a sales piece… was that you’ve been around the block emotionally, you scored. Any further detail would muddy up the yarn.
Here’s another one: "I interviewed for my first real job right out of college. Cinched up my tie, answered every jackass question seriously, shook hands like a candidate. Got the gig, hated every second of my life for six months, never quite caught my breath, got fired, and happily collected unemployment checks for the next three months."
Or, here’s a tidbit from my own biography: "We were vandals as kids, mostly ineffective and innocent, but occasionally stunning models of anarchy. Asked an engineer, once, how many railroad ties his cow-catcher could handle… and the next day, put all those plus one on the tracks. Derailed the train… and our genuine horror of success was deepened by the realization we’d better watch our butts if we were gonna engage with the adult world like that."
Three sentences. Yeah, long ones. But three coherent, grammatically correct sentences. A complete story, with entry point, action, and a quasi-moral ending.
Consider how looooooooooooong I could have dragged out that tale, and been absolutely justified in doing so. Because, hey, events took place over a couple of days, and there are details of our gang and the neighborhood and the derailment that are fascinating.
Just freaking fascinating.
But longer stories should be told only if you’re invited to tell them. As in, writing your thousand-page biography and selling it. Anyone buys, it’s a tacit agreement to put up with every long-winded saga you’ve got up your sleeve.
Okay… now it’s your turn.
Leave a three-sentence story from your life in the new "comments" section on ETR’s website here.
Don’t be shy. We’re all trying new stuff this year. (Or should be, because the business landscape is changing so dramatically and rapidly. The best marketers I know are trashing old limitations, stretching new boundaries, waking up and engaging the world on fresh terms.)
I promise to read every submission. I’ll even toss a few comments into the pile myself, when warranted.
And I can guarantee you this innocent little exercise will sharpen your chops as a storyteller. Some of you are already damn good, I’m sure… while others can use a lot of work. But we ALL need to remember how critical stories are for communication. (As in, communicating your sales message in a way that grabs attention, persuades, and closes.)
C’mon. Three lines. That forces you to be concise, to consider every single word carefully, and to crunch often-rambling experiences into tidy little narratives with a point.
Just like a top writer does it.
I’m not looking for funny. Not looking for tears. Not looking for anything profound.
Just a story.
For some writers, this will be a true test, because you aren’t used to pushing yourself. However, the best already do.
Good luck.
[Ed. Note: John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. Get the details here on how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers. And be sure to read his insights, tactics, and advice on copywriting and marketing at his blog.]
Do you remember the card game "Old Maid?" I remember playing it with both my kids many years ago. They loved it. They hated being stuck with that odd queen at the end of the game. Now they’re young adults and have moved on. But I’m still playing the game.
I have no choice. Dozens, if not hundreds, of companies are pretending they’re not holding the Old Maid. In other words, they’re hiding the full extent of their bad debt, assets, and hedges.
The practice is worse than ever – thanks to the spread of the subprime contagion. It’s shown up in surprising places like municipal bonds and Chinese banks. Right now, companies harboring Old Maids are a dime a dozen. I fear that soon they’ll be worth a nickel.
If you don’t want to get stuck with a loser, how do you invest?
[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director, Andrew Gordon, is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"Shibboleth" (SHIB-uh-lith) – from the Hebrew – is a word, saying, custom, or belief identified with a group or cause.
Example (as used by Elizabeth Austin in U.S. News & World Report): "In the late ’60s, however, the loud, open use of the ‘F’ word became a true shibboleth, dividing the student radicals from the Establishment ‘pigs’ they delighted in tweaking."
Tree houses and rope swings aren’t just for kids anymore. And the action isn’t confined to the backyard. Dozens of tree-top adventure parks have sprouted around the world, including the U.K., France, Bali, Thailand, and New Zealand. The parks feature rope bridges, zip lines, Tarzan-style swings, tree-top platforms, and more.
Adventurers wear safety harnesses and helmets, and are given thorough instructions before beginning their trek. The courses, which are up to 50 feet above the ground, usually take a couple of hours to complete. Check out these sites for more information: goape.co.uk, cityaventure.com, adrenalin-forest.co.nz, and ekohchang.com.
(Source: Springwise)
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been running a secret test. (If you’re very observant, you may already know what I’m talking about.) You see, we wanted to find out what would happen with our new "addition"… without telling our readers about it.
Turns out, we’ve gotten a HUGE response. So we wanted to make sure you’re in on what we’ve been up to.
We’ve added a new way for you to get involved with the ETR community: a "comments" section on each page of our website.
This is your chance to get more of what YOU want out of ETR.
But more than that, this is your chance to enter into a conversation with other members of the ETR community. These are people who share your interests. Many of them may have valuable advice to give. And you can certainly help your fellow ETR readers by sharing your own ideas and experience.
The ETR team will be joining the conversation, too. But there’s no way the team can answer every request. That’s why we’re encouraging the participation of everyone in our like-minded community. So feel free to jump in with answers to other people’s questions – and to expand on the ideas they put forth.
The next time you have a thought or question about an article you read in ETR, click on over to our archives, pick the article you want to comment on, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and start typing away!
We can’t wait to hear what you have to say.
Issue #2338
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
We can all use a little extra help when it comes to building energy – and that goes double for athletes. One supplement that could help is bovine colostrum.
Colostrum Benefits
Colostrum is the early milk that a mammal produces for a few days after delivering a baby. In cows, it’s called bovine colostrum. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that bovine colostrum helped male cyclists have more energy during a bout of intense training.
Cecelia Shing, at the University of Queensland in Australia, followed 29 male distance cyclists. Her research team first took baseline measurements of the men’s performance on a 40-kilometer time trial. They then randomly assigned the cyclists to drink either a supplement containing 10 grams of bovine colostrum protein or a whey protein supplement every day for eight weeks. During week eight, the men underwent five consecutive days of high-intensity training. There were no clear differences between the two groups during normal training. However, volunteers who used bovine colostrum performed at a higher level, with fewer signs of fatigue, during tests taken after the five-day run of intense training.
There are certain foods that I would consider superfoods in that they have a high concentration of substances useful for well-being and overall health. Colostrum falls into this category. It is rich in immunoglobulins – proteins involved in promoting the immune system and fighting germs. It has other beneficial compounds, too – such as growth factors and nucleosides – that are not found in regular milk.
You can find bovine colostrum in the dairy section of any health food store. It is also available as a supplement in capsule form.
[Ed. Note: Ray Sahelian, MD, the author of Mind Boosters, ETRhealthconcerns is internationally recognized as a moderate voice in the evaluation of natural supplements. Visit Dr. Sahelian's website at www.RaySahelian.com, and read more of his articles about the supplements you should and shouldn't be taking at ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
The more power and influence you develop on the job, the more you will be paid and the faster you will be promoted.
There are three types of power that you can develop at work, all of which can be extremely helpful to you in getting ahead.
The first type of power you can develop is expert power.
The expert in any organization is the person who has taken the time to become extremely competent in a critical area. Often, the expert in an organization is even more powerful than the senior executives, because that individual is largely irreplaceable. This is sometimes called the "critical skill" of the company, because it is vital to continued cash flow, growth, and even the survival of the business.
The second type of power is ascribed power.
This is a form of unofficial power that gravitates toward you, like iron filings toward a magnet, because you are the kind of person others like and respect and enjoy being around. In every work situation, there is a person with ascribed power. This person has an influence out of proportion to his or her job, because people come to him or her for advice, for counsel, to solve problems, and because he or she is a genuinely likable person. Ascribed power enables you to influence a greater number of people than you could without it. And it often leads to promotions and opportunities that would not have arisen in its absence.
The key to gaining ascribed power is to be pleasant with everyone. Be positive and upbeat. Be cheerful. Get a reputation for being nice. Have something positive to say to each person about each person. Never complain. Ask people questions about themselves, and be a good listener. Ascribed power can help you go far in a short period of time.
The third type of power in an organization is position power.
This is the power and authority that goes along with a particular position or title. For example, the person who is in charge of sales has the authority to make decisions with regard to the sales force. The person who is in charge of finance has the authority to make decisions with regard to how monies are allocated and accounted for. Position power is very important in any organization, and one of the jobs of a boss is to make it crystal clear to everyone exactly how much authority goes with an individual’s job title and responsibilities.
You can enhance your position power by using it gently and constructively. Instead of telling people to do things because you have the authority to do so, ask them to help you get a specific job done. The best leaders are excellent, low-pressure salespeople. Even though they have the power to insist that things be done their way, they ask people diplomatically, with tact and sensitivity, to get a particular job done by a particular time.
The more you refrain from asserting your position power, the more people will respect you and be eager to cooperate with you to help you achieve your goals.
You can develop your expert power, ascribed power, and position power by working on your people skills. You gain ascribed power by being a helpful, likable, and cooperative person to work with. You develop expert power by becoming extremely competent in one or two areas where you can make a significant contribution to the organization. And you receive position power in that, as you increase your talents, you will be given more people to influence so that you can help the company achieve greater productivity.
Now, here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a decision, right now, to develop "expert power" by becoming very good at your job.
Second, resolve to increase your "ascribed power" by being positive, polite, and cheerful with everyone, even when you don’t feel like it.
Third, increase your "position power" by taking the time to work closely with your staff and help them do their jobs better and easier.
[Ed. Note: Brian Tracy is one of America 's leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. With Brian's Ultimate Goal Achieving Package, you can discover a simple and easy-to-learn way to get everything you want out of life. Learn more here.]
"My ex-wife and I co-own a house just north of Tampa, FL. We purchased it 2 years ago for $260K, and have just unexpectedly lost our tenant. This leaves us in a $2,000/month hole. Both the rental and the sales markets are slow down there, with a glut of empty houses providing a big challenge to our fiscal serenity.
"We are currently working with realtors to either rent or sell the house. We owe $205K, and the comps are showing sales prices of $225K, $205K, $190K, and $175K in the past 6 months. If we found a buyer at the top of that range, we could pay the mortgage and the realtor fee, and walk away with nothing. Distressingly, that has been seeming the better option of late. We had a negative cash flow of $900/month before, and IF we could find another tenant, it would likely be higher.
"My question is the obvious one. What would you do?"
Tom B.
Leverett, MA
Dear Tom,
I’ve advocated buying only cash-flow properties using fixed rate, amortizing loans. But now that you’re in this situation, here are a few things to consider:
Option 1: Look into special-needs housing – connecting with organizations that provide furnished rooms for vets or the disabled or people in halfway houses.
As I said in my article "Creating Cash Flow Without Ownership," one of my houses is rented out to a guy who subleases on this basis. He pays me $1,450 a month. That covers my nut comfortably. Then he turns around and subleases to members of a substance abuse recovery program. He charges them $125 to $150 per week for a room, which includes utilities, Internet, and cable. If his utilities, Internet, cable, and other expenses are $650, he clears $1,500 a month.
Now I wouldn’t want to lease out the property on a room-by-room basis myself. It’s too management-intensive for me. But I could if I needed to. And if I did, I could increase my net by $1,500 or so a month. For you, this is very much worth looking into.
Option 2: Student housing – a version of the above.
Rent by the bed with "all bills paid." If there’s a school near your property that makes this possible, try to get the parents of the students to guarantee the leases and agree (in writing) to pay for any damages. Again, managing this yourself will be time-consuming – but you could end up (at least) doubling your rents.
Option 3: See if you can sell the house on terms.
You can usually get a somewhat higher price this way than if you require the buyer to come to the table with a down payment and a bank loan. Take five percent down (or even one percent or two percent if you have to), and hold a note for the rest. Now taxes and insurance are the buyer’s concern. You take the five percent monthly payments on your sale price and pay your underlying mortgage. This is called a wrap-around mortgage. You sell the property "subject to" the existing mortgage and create a mortgage for your buyer that wraps around your existing mortgage.
You’ll want a lawyer who has experience in this kind of transaction to handle it for you. It’s probably best to structure it as a land contract, where you don’t give the buyer the deed until they’ve paid off the note. You can try to make the note for one or two years, with the buyer getting third-party financing after that to pay off your mortgage.
Note: in all likelihood, your current mortgage has a "due on sale" clause. This clause typically says the bank could call the loan if they find out you sold the property. People who do this sort of thing say the bank’s not likely to call a loan if the payments are being made on it. But be aware that they could – in which case you’d have to pay all of it or forfeit the collateral property.
Option 4: Try a creative lease option.
Say you normally might be able to offer your house for $205K on a lease option. The other party pays $1,200 a month, and $200 of it goes to equity. Maybe you can offer it for $220K with a $1,250 monthly lease payment… but 100 percent goes to equity if they execute the option to buy! This is a unique offer. At the end of one year, if they execute, they have to come up with $205,000 – about what you owe. If they don’t execute, at least you’ve pulled in another $15K, reducing your negative cash flow.
Not ideal… but keep in mind that you’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Last, but not least, should you stay or should you go… and walk away with nothing?
I’m afraid I can’t tell you when your market is going to bottom. I’ve never had a crystal ball – only a healthy dose of financial fear and skepticism. That’s why I only buy cash-flow properties at or below market value, fixing rates for at least a few years longer than I intend to own them, using amortizing loans. If nothing else, one day… however far down the road… my tenants will eventually pay off my properties. And the chances that I’ll be forced to sell are greatly reduced.
I could wait for the right market or just hold until the loan is paid off. But I don’t know if you can or should wait. You’re losing about $24K a year, and stand to lose about $11K a year even if you get another tenant in there. And it looks like you may have negative equity right now. Try to increase income with the first two options I gave you above. Or lease-option, using Option 3. Or sell, using Option 4. Keep getting creative: Look for ways to boost your income and reduce your expenses on the property, while seeking buyers and lease optioners and being disposed to work with them on terms.
I wish you luck.
- Justin Ford
[Ed. Note: Justin Ford is the author of Main Street Millionaire, a value-focused real estate investment program. At ETR's recent Profits in Paradise Wealth-Building Summit, 14 of the world's experts in wealth - including real estate specialists Dave Lindahl, Marko Rubel, and Jim Fleck - divulged their biggest secrets to churning out cash. Take advantage of their proven money-making strategies with ETR's Profits in Paradise DVD Library. Get the details here.]
Send your questions to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.]
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and… speak a few reasonable words." If you’re a longtime reader of ETR, you know that Michael Masterson has referred to this quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe several times.
It’s a reminder that there’s more to life than money. That, to be an interesting, well-rounded person, you have to spend time building the "personal you" as well as your bank account.
"Okay," you might be saying, "I can listen to a little good music every day. I can make it a point to look at something that’s visually appealing (though maybe not a painting). And I can at least try to have a challenging or entertaining conversation. But when it comes to reading poetry… I’d rather skip that one."
Let me try to change your mind by showing you how easy it is to read – and enjoy – a good poem. And by "good," I mean a poem that (like a good book) you get more out of every time you read it.
A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore -
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
By now, I’ll bet you’ve got this poem memorized. (It’s easy to memorize good poetry.) And I’ll bet you won’t forget it either.
That wasn’t hard, was it? And don’t you feel just a little bit wiser?
A poem a day. Try it.
[Ed. Note: Improving your personal self should be one of your primary goals every year. And it can be as simple as reading a poem a day. Learn how to accomplish all your goals - personal, social, business, and financial - with ETR's Total Success Achievement program. Get the details here.]
"Coeval" (koh-EE-vul) means of the same age, originating or existing during the same period of time. It is derived from the Latin for "lifetime."
Example (as used by Mark Mathabane in Newsday): "Coeval with human speech and found among all peoples, poetry appeals to our sense of wonder, to our unending quest for answers to the timeless questions of who we are and why we are."
Foods that produce a high glycemic load – such as sugared drinks, white bread, and white potatoes – cause a quick rise in blood sugar. More complex carbohydrates with fiber, such as unrefined cereals, grains, and beans, have a more gradual effect on blood sugar, and, thus, have a low glycemic index. Eating low-glycemic foods can help stave off obesity and diabetes. It can also help clear up unsightly acne.
Dr. Robyn N. Smith, from the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, evaluated acne symptoms in 43 male patients. The participants – who ranged in age from 15 to 25 – were randomly assigned to a low-glycemic-load diet or a normal diet. After three months, the low-glycemic diet was associated with a significant reduction in acne compared with the normal diet. In addition, the low-glycemic diet produced greater reductions in body weight and body mass and a greater increase in insulin sensitivity.
One reason for the success of the low-glycemic diet is that it limits the increase in insulin levels. Chronically high levels of insulin may lead to blockages in skin pores and extra oil building up under the skin.
Along with sticking to low-glycemic foods, eating lots of fish full of omega-3 EPA and DHA oils is very helpful for people with acne. Even with the best diet, many teenagers will be bothered with pimples. But their skin problem is likely to be less severe when they adopt a healthier diet.
[Ed. Note: Ray Sahelian, MD, the author of Mind Boosters, is internationally recognized as a moderate voice in the evaluation of natural supplements. Visit Dr. Sahelian's website at www.RaySahelian.com, and read his articles about the supplements you should and shouldn't be taking at ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
Insect repellant with the powerful chemical DEET has been a mainstay of outdoorsmen and campers for 50 years. But until now, nobody really knew how it worked.
The authors of a new study have found that DEET blocks insects from "smelling" people by overwhelming their odor receptors. The insects’ sense of smell is blocked temporarily, and they can’t find their target.
(Source: National Geographic)
Issue #2337
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Ask most experienced direct marketers "What’s the best price to charge for my product," and the answer will be: whatever the market will bear.
In direct marketing, we can test prices and quickly see which is the most profitable – generating the highest return on our marketing dollars (ROMD). And, surprisingly, tests show that higher prices sometimes generate more orders than lower prices. In one classic example, a publisher was offering a service teaching presentation skills to business executives. When they tested $197 vs. $297 in their advertising, $297 was the winner.
Most direct marketers conclude that if the higher price wins, they should go with that. But while this is a sensible strategy in most instances, are there any situations in which charging a too-high price may come back to bite you… even if your price tests show the higher price to be the winner?
I can think of several.
The first is when pricing professional services.
GD, a pricing expert, once told me that the ideal price level for professional services is in the middle of the top third – NOT "the most you can get."
Let’s say the hourly rates for service providers in your industry range from $100 at the bottom to $400 at the top.
You don’t want to be in the lower third of the price range, charging $100 to $200 an hour, because prospects equate a bargain price with inferior quality.
Pricing in the middle range, at $200 to $300 an hour, isn’t bad. But it makes you one of the herd – a commodity.
The top range is an hourly rate between $300 and $400. So by following GD’s advice, you would set your hourly rate at $350, smack dab in the middle of the upper third. This is high enough that you are perceived as a top professional in your field, but not so high that you are always the most expensive provider of your service.
You see, if you are the highest-priced provider in your field, not only will new prospects hesitate before hiring you. "Every time you give your current clients an estimate, they will strongly consider bidding the job out for competitive quotes rather than just signing your agreement," said GD. "One day, they will try someone else, find they get equivalent service for a lower price, and you will never hear from them again."
Another problem with charging outrageously high prices is that it creates ill will between buyer and seller. The buyer feels ripped off, and complains loudly about things he might otherwise let pass. Also, if you charge a premium price and you fail to deliver the premium results you promised, that client will never hire you again… and will badmouth you to others.
Here’s another sign that your prices are too high: a spike in your refund rate.
So how do you put a logical limit on your pricing?
My friend, information marketing guru Fred Gleeck, has a simple rule. "I don’t sell a product unless I truly believe the content is worth at least 10 times the price I am charging," he says.
Then there is an ethical question: Given our free market society, is it okay for a drug company to charge a price for a proprietary medication that only the wealthiest patients can afford – especially when doing so effectively sentences poor people with the disease to death?
Fortunately, most of us don’t market products that people absolutely can’t live without… though some of us price our products as if that were the case. However, no matter what your pricing is – high, low, or in between – rest assured that some folks will complain about it.
Is there a way to prevent consumers from protesting against your high prices? Yes. By offering them options for getting your information cheaper. Like this:
By giving your customers several ways to get your information inexpensively, it will be impossible for them to complain that you are too expensive or unfairly priced. You simply point out that if they can’t afford your high-end products and services, they can avail themselves of your expertise through your e-book, e-newsletter, or free online content.
You’ll be able to sleep at night, confident that people won’t be thinking of you as a greedy opportunist and besmirching your reputation.
Or at least not doing so loudly.
[Ed. Note: Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 70 books. Together with Michael Masterson, Bob has put together a comprehensive program that reveals insider secrets to direct marketing. Keep in mind that you can use direct marketing to help you grow any business - whether it's a brick-and-mortar store or an online company. Learn the details here.
Sign up for Bob's free monthly e-zine, The Direct Response Letter, and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]
In the 1880s, a merchant named Patterson converted his small company’s cash box into the world’s first cash register. He did it to reduce employee pilferage. Had he left it at that, it would have been of modest value to him. Instead, the moment he realized he had a machine that would work for other retailers too, he went into the cash register business. In 1884, National Cash Register (NCR) was born.
In a now-famous speech on "worldly wisdom," Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger said, "A well-educated orangutan could see that buying into partnership with Patterson in those early days… was a total, 100 percent cinch."
It’s not surprising that Patterson’s cash register business became a big success. It was the right idea at the right time – a useful tool for an industry that was exploding, like information publishing is exploding on the Internet today.
And that’s the secret of successful investing, Christopher Mayer says in his new book, Invest like a Dealmaker: finding companies that have many things working in their favor, not just the fundamentals of the company itself.
"When many forces are working in your favor," Mayer says, "amplifying and reinforcing each other, you get what Munger calls a ‘lollapalooza effect.’" It’s like critical mass in physics. Create enough concentration of mass and you’ll set off a nuclear explosion.
The average investor has the wrong idea about how the stock market works, Mayer says. "He thinks about the price of his stock in terms of its quoted stock price. But even then… he often misunderstands what that price represents."
Mayer explains that a stock’s quoted price represents only part of the stock’s underlying value: the company’s equity.
You can determine the total equity of a company by taking the quoted stock price and multiplying it by the total number of shares that are trading on the stock exchange (the shares outstanding, to use the trader’s term). But then you need to add to that the company’s total debt. The combination of debt and equity gives you the total worth of the company – its enterprise value, as stock experts like to call it.
Most investors focus on a company’s P/E ratio – the relationship between the stock’s market price and its earnings per share. That gives you an idea of how enthusiastic the market is about the company’s growth potential. (In general, faster-growing and less-risky companies have higher P/E ratios.)
But a better way to make investment decisions is to invest like a professional trader, Mayer says. And a dealmaker will always want to compare earnings to enterprise value, because this gives him the bigger picture – the kind of picture you’d have if you were investing personally in a company.
That’s just the first of several important investment concepts that Mayer teaches in his new book: Invest like a Dealmaker. I read it. I liked it. I recommend you read it too.
[Christopher Mayer isn't the only one who can help you become a better, more prosperous investor. ETR's Rick Pendergraft has created a trading service based on investing principles that are super-simple to understand. Learn the details here.]
You may know that doing business as a corporation or LLC can maximize your financial reward while minimizing your risk. What’s less well known is that many business owners lose this valuable protection each year by failing to follow a few basic rules and regulations.
Even if it seems like a hassle now, ensuring that your corporation or LLC is properly managed could save you from IRS audits, lawsuits, or other headaches down the road.
Whether you’re a real estate investor, an independent contractor, or a small-business owner, forming a corporation or LLC can minimize your taxes and protect your personal assets.
Unfortunately, many people start businesses without proper instruction on managing agreements between parties, creating agreements with customers, internal paperwork, cash controls, voting rules, state and Federal reporting requirements, and a host of other issues.
In particular, there are actions, behaviors, or neglected tasks that can negate the value of your business – and leave your personal assets at risk. Here are five of the most common mistakes:
1. Using the Business for Fraudulent Activities
Do I have to say it? You cannot and should not use your business to cheat or defraud. Let’s say John Smith gathers money from investors, claiming he will use it to develop a new product for his company. However, he never intended to use that money for product development. When he is sued by the investors, John claims that his personal assets are protected since he was acting as the president of his limited liability company. But, because fraud was involved, no court will honor the limited liability company. So his personal assets and business assets are at risk.
You may think that this is an egregious example. That it would never happen to you. But if, for example, you’re a real estate investor, consider the fact that many deals struck with so-called "motivated sellers" could give rise to a lawsuit under your state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) or a similar statute. Sometimes the line between a good deal and fraud is not so clear, so make sure your agreements are fair.
And if you’re a small-business owner, you can’t be wholly unfair or flagrantly one-sided when dealing with your customers. As in the real estate example above, a court can look at a one-sided transaction and decide against you. Even worse, a judge could declare that you are using your business to promote unfair dealings, a far more serious charge.
Avoiding this mistake is simple. Ask yourself if you would want to be the buyer/customer on the other end of your deal. There are plenty of legal ways to structure "win-win" deals and still make great profits. Ever hear of karma? Everything you do to or for another person will one day be done to or for you. So be fair!
2. Failure to Respect the Business as Separate From Its Owners
Don’t mix funds from business accounts with your personal funds and accounts. For example, don’t use company money to buy personal assets, groceries, etc. If you do this routinely (or perhaps only once), your business structure may not hold up in court.
3. Failure to Properly Capitalize the Business
Your business must have enough insurance or savings to cover expenses, liabilities, and obligations. If it doesn’t, a state court will likely "pierce" the business entity and hold the owners personally liable. The amount of capitalization generally refers to the total value of company assets (equipment, cash, etc.) and the amount of insurance coverage. This is a complicated area, because you may need more or less "capitalization" based on your type of business. Requirements vary, but, as a general rule, the more you deal with the public, the more capital you should have available.
4. Forgetting to File State Reports
Your secretary of state’s office will require you to keep up with reports and state taxes (sometimes called franchise taxes or business privilege taxes). If you don’t (even if nominal amounts are owed), your business privileges will likely be revoked. The privilege that goes first is – you guessed it – your personal liability protection.
5. Other Formalities
Other formalities that you need to pay attention to include meetings, paperwork, required records, proper roles and obligations among the parties, and transfers of ownership interests. Make sure all of these are in order to preserve your liability protection and, if necessary, satisfy IRS auditors.
Don’t be discouraged by how easy it can be to lose your liability protection by falling into these five common traps. Knowing that they exist will help you avoid costly mistakes, keep your taxes to a minimum, and protect your personal property.
[Ed. Note: Attorney Darius Barazandeh holds an MBA and is an active real estate and tax-deed investor in Texas. He is also a leading national speaker on tax liens and corporate entities for small businesses and real estate investors.
Don't let the possibility of making the above mistakes prevent you from getting into the real estate business. Learn more about how to set up your business correctly from the start, protect your personal assets from lawsuits, and minimize the tax bite from your investing profits. Get the details here.]
At 4:00 p.m. last Saturday, a serious latte craving struck. But the line at my local Starbucks stood 10 deep. And the barista behind the counter moved like molasses.
While I waited, my eyes scanned the non-coffee items Starbucks decorates their counters with. A case full of pastries. James Brown CDs. The daily horoscope. Quotes from staff members. And on the blackboard behind the counter, this little tidbit (more or less):
"From Now Until ALWAYS – If you order espresso, service may be a little slow while our barista hand-makes your drink."
A little clunky perhaps. But this tiny fragment of marketing copy was telling those of us in line that the barista’s maddening slowness would ultimately benefit us. It implied that if she weren’t moving so slowly – taking such deliberate care to hand-make our drinks – our beverages wouldn’t be as good.
This is an example of what ad legend Eugene Schwartz calls "redefinition." Basically, you take a problem with your product – in this case, slow service – and redefine it as a benefit for your customers.
Your goal with redefinition, says Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising, is to "remove a roadblock to your sale – if possible, before the prospect even knows it exists."
Schwartz mentions Lifebuoy soap, which had an off-puttingly strong medicinal odor. To combat people’s objection to the smell, Lifebuoy copywriters redefined the smell as proof that the soap had "the odor-destroying power to make a longshoreman acceptable at a society ball."
Now we’re not saying that you should put a positive "spin" on something that makes your product sub-par. You should always strive to have the highest-quality products possible. But if your product has something – a high price, a complicated mechanism, an unpleasant smell – that might turn your customers off, see if you can redefine it into a benefit.
[Ed. Note: You can redefine a product in three major ways. Learn about all three - and discover dozens more techniques you can use to make your advertising copy more powerful - in Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising. Get the details here.]
Something that’s "brummagem" (BRUM-uh-jum) is cheap and showy or counterfeit. The word came about as an alteration of Birmingham (England), from the counterfeit silver coins produced in that city in the 17th century.
Example (as used by Betty McCollister in the Humanist): "But demanding that publishers replace their brummagem wares with books which embody [Madeline] Kunin’s ‘high standards of excellence’ would be a promising – and cost-free – way to begin."
When a salamander loses a leg, it can re-grow a perfect replacement within a couple of months.
How? When a leg is cut off, blood vessels in the stump close up immediately to stop bleeding. Then new skin cells grow over the injury. A few days later, the same type of cells that grew the salamander’s legs when it was an embryo are activated, and the replacement begins to form.
University of California researchers are studying this phenomenon in hopes of transferring the regenerative ability to humans.
(Source: Scientific American)
Issue #2336
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
"I believe ETR’s response to the question about e-mail list brokers was misguided. Yes, one may rent an e-mail list. It is, however, to the best of my knowledge, a federal crime to use such a list. Thus, it is money down the drain. No rented list can pass the permission test."
Orv.Barr
Livermore, CA
Dear Orv,
Taking control of an e-mail list and sending messages through it is called spam. Yes, that is a federal crime… and we would never advise anyone to do that.
What has been and remains best e-mail practice is e-mail list rental. This is when you make a deal with the owner of an e-mail list for a specific number of mailings (one or more). The list owner will send out your sales message to his list on your behalf. In exchange, he’ll get a percentage of the profits from sales of your product to his subscribers, or he’ll get a chance to advertise to your e-mail list.
If a list owner has his list on the "market," you can go through a list broker to get to the list manager. Or you can directly approach the list manager. Either way, the list owner sends the e-mail to his list. You don’t get direct access to it. If we were to rent the USA Today e-mail list, for example, USA Today would not send us a list of their e-mail addresses. We would send them our sales message, and they would send it to their subscribers through their server.
- MaryEllen Tribby, ETR’s CEO and Publisher
[Ed. Note: Send your questions to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.]
Acetaminophen – the generic name for Tylenol – is an effective way to reduce joint pain from arthritis. But acetaminophen can cause harm to the liver, even at doses of one gram a day. So I do not think it is a good drug to take long term for a chronic condition like osteoarthritis. Instead, consider supplementing with glucosamine sulfate.
Researchers in Madrid, Spain compared the effect of glucosamine sulfate versus acetaminophen on the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis during a six-month course of treatment. Patients were randomly assigned to receive oral glucosamine sulfate (1,500 mg once daily), acetaminophen (3 grams a day), or a placebo. The findings of this study indicate that, in the long run, glucosamine sulfate is at least as effective as acetaminophen for knee osteoarthritis symptoms.
You can find glucosamine supplements in most health food stores. Combining glucosamine with chondroitin and other nutrients or herbs may be more beneficial than taking it by itself. So look for supplements that include CMO, curcumin, or boswellia – all of which play a role in joint health.
[Ed. Note: Ray Sahelian, MD, the author of Mind Boosters, is internationally recognized as a moderate voice in the evaluation of natural supplements. Visit Dr. Sahelian's website at www.RaySahelian.com, and read more of his articles about the supplements you should and shouldn't be taking at ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
Issue #2335
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Dinner is an important meal in my house. While our kids were growing, it was practically the only time we were all together. Five times a week, K would cook a great and healthy meal. Usually fresh vegetables, some pasta or potatoes, and fresh fish or organic chicken. We would come to the table well-dressed and with our hands washed. And everyone would be expected to eat properly and engage in sociable conversation.
Things were more relaxed on the weekends. On Saturday night, K and I had a "date," and the boys ate with friends or cousins. On Sunday night, we all went to a local restaurant – most often Mexican or Italian.
Although K and I are empty nesters now, we still like the formality of our at-home dinners. She still cooks great meals, even if they’re just for the two of us. My contribution is very modest (and gives me great pleasure). Based on what K is cooking, I go out to the wine cellar and select a bottle for us to drink.
We eat at home just three or four times a week nowadays. On Wednesday and Friday, we have separate dinner routines: a book club and girlfriends for her; a different book club and poker for me. Saturday is still date night. And Sunday is still Mexican or Italian.
So that’s dinner. A pleasant mix of formality and informality, dining with K and with friends.
The rest of my eating routine is designed around my work schedule.
I used to eat weekday breakfasts and lunches at restaurants, usually with a colleague. It felt like I was accomplishing more by making those meals business meals, but in retrospect I can see how much time I was wasting. (Plus, all that restaurant food was starting to make me fat.)
Between driving to and from, waiting to order, waiting for the food, and waiting for the check, eating at restaurants is a very inefficient process. Yes, you can have a business conversation while eating, but with very few exceptions it would be better conducted and take less time in the office.
Also, you can’t work on documents very well when you have a plate of food in front of you. For another thing, you can’t think well when you’re hungry or express yourself well with food in your mouth.
These days, eating in restaurants is strictly a social pastime for me – a time to relax with friends and family members, usually on the weekend. During the week, I eat breakfast at home and lunch at my desk.
I will schedule or attend a business lunch (or breakfast) for only one reason: when the purpose is to interview a key person for one of my companies. I like the idea of including a meal in the interview process for the very reason I don’t like business lunches: because eating is a social function. I like seeing the social side of someone I’m going to hire. I want to see how he or she operates outside of an office building. I also like to see how job candidates treat the waiter and busboy. It tells me about their character. And character is my top priority in judging a job candidate’s worthiness.
Other than that, how do I feed myself?
It’s very simple. Here’s my routine:
Meal One : 7:00 a.m., while editing poetry. Two fried eggs (organic). One piece of toasted hemp bread. Two ounces of fresh juice. Coffee. Water.
Meal Two : 11:00 a.m., while writing in my studio. Blended vegetable drink or a piece of toasted hemp bread with organic peanut butter. Water.
Meal Three : 1:00 p.m. or 1:30 p.m., after my workout. Salad with chicken or fish. Iced tea.
Meal Four: 6:30 p.m., after my second workout. Protein shake.
Meal Five : 7:30 p.m. A well-balanced dinner.
Meal Six : Does not exist when I’m being good. Once or twice a week I snack on something. When I do, I always regret it.
Like my work routine, my eating routine has been developed over time. It is now designed to give me optimum energy throughout the day and provide me with the nutrients I’ve been told I need to lead a healthy life.
Most of my current eating habits have been influenced by the research that my personal physician, Dr. Al Sears, has done on the subject. Al’s approach to food is not difficult to understand: He believes that natural is better.
In particular, he advocates an eating regime that is consistent with how our long-ago ancestors had to eat: fish, grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, organic vegetables that grow above the ground, berries and fruits. He warns against grains, grain-fed meat, and anything that is infused with hormones and chemicals.
In The Doctor’s Heart Cure, he puts it this way:
"Remember those four basic food groups from grade school health class? If you’ve forgotten them, don’t worry about it, they don’t tell you anything about your natural diet. They were a nutritionist’s attempt to make sense of a very contrived artificial diet based on grains and other processed foods…
"… You don’t have to count calories or record fat grams to achieve your ideal weight and maintain optimal cardiovascular health. All you have to do is to eat the same ratio and quality of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that we have for eons. How are you going to do that? Get started by remembering these three easy principles:
"Principle #1: Eat protein at every meal.
"Principle #2: Limit carbohydrate intake.
"Principle #3: Eat natural fats."
A typical day’s meals for me supply the following nutrients:
|
Quantity |
Food |
Fat (g) |
Protein (g) |
Carbs (g) |
Fiber (g) |
|
2 |
Eggs |
10 |
14 |
1 |
0 |
|
1 |
Hemp Bread |
2 |
4 |
12 |
5 |
|
8 oz |
Coffee |
0 |
0.28 |
0 |
0 |
|
2 oz |
Apple Juice |
0.07 |
0.04 |
7 |
0.1 |
|
8 oz |
Vegetable Shake |
0 |
12 |
3 |
95 |
|
1 cup |
Green Salad |
0.05 |
4 |
1 |
0.5 |
|
6 oz |
Broiled Fish |
13 |
42 |
0 |
0 |
|
16 oz |
Iced Tea |
0 |
0 |
1.4 |
0 |
|
8 oz |
Protein Shake |
2 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
|
8 oz |
Grass-Fed Beef |
6 |
56 |
0 |
0 |
|
1 cup |
Green Beans |
0.4 |
4 |
10 |
2.6 |
|
1 large |
Baked Potato |
0.4 |
9 |
63 |
6.6 |
|
3 oz |
Cheddar Cheese |
28 |
21 |
1 |
0 |
|
1 glass |
Red Wine |
0 |
0.1 |
3.8 |
0 |
|
2 cups |
Berries or Grapes |
1.6/0.5 |
3/2 |
30/55 |
16 |
|
TOTALS |
|
63.5/62.4 |
176.4/175.4 |
137.2/162.2 |
127.8 |
I have tried dozens of eating plans over the year. This one works best for me. I like being able to eat five times a day. I don’t mind if each of those meals is small. Food is primarily fuel for me. I want to put the highest quality fuel I can into my body as often as I can.
Of course, you don’t have to eat exactly the same foods that I do. What you eat is a matter of personal choice. But to stay productive, energetic, and healthy, I recommend that you try for a similar balance of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and fiber.
When you’re full of energy, your goals will be easier to tackle. And you’ll enjoy their achievement even more when you’re feeling healthy and strong.
[Ed. Note: Eating right isn't the only thing you should do if you hope to turn your dreams into reality. But many proven goal-setting strategies are just as easy to understand and implement. Learn more about how you can finally accomplish your personal and professional goals here.]
We’ve told you before how RSS (really simple syndication) – a technology that allows Web users to receive constantly updated information – can benefit your customers and help get more traffic to your website. But using it can help you too – by saving you time.
RSS delivers updates from your favorite newsletters and news websites into one place: your RSS feed reader. So, by getting set up to receive RSS feeds, you’ll spend less time looking for content and more time benefiting from it.
Here’s how to do it quickly and easily:
RSS feeds are widely available across the Web, and the set-up to receive them is similar to the one I just walked you through. Using an online RSS reader (such as Google’s) is recommended, because then you’ll have access to your RSS feeds anywhere you go. Just sign onto your account from any computer, and you’ll be able to keep up to date on all the news that’s important to you… in less time and with less searching.
[Ed. Note: Rick Maggio is ETR's newest Search Engine Marketing Specialist.
Now you can get useful, edgy ideas about business, wealth, and marketing from two of ETR's experts - via RSS! Sign up for RSS delivery of Michael Masterson's blog and Charlie Byrne's blog.
The Internet is full of useful tools that can save you time... and even make you money. But sometimes they can seem more complicated than they are. For instance, setting up an Internet business doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming. Learn more about how easy it can be here.]
One of the great sales directors with whom I worked many years ago gave me a simple tip: "If you buy a client a cup of coffee, never, ever, ever ask for a receipt."
You see, asking for a receipt means you are going to claim the charge as a business expense. What’s the big deal? Well, it gives the subtle impression that, even after all the thousands of dollars the client has spent with you or your company, you do not value the relationship enough to buy him a cup of coffee.
Yes, it’s a small thing. But little things can add up to a boatload of good – or bad – feeling. If you don’t ask for a receipt when you treat your client to a drink or dinner, you give the impression that you care about him on a personal level.
Don’t worry. You can still write it off as a business expense. In most cases, you’ll get a receipt without asking. If you don’t, you’ll have a credit card statement you can use to prove the expense.
The point is, forget about yourself. Your clients are important. If you’re not willing to spend a few bucks to buy them a cup of coffee from time to time, how much do you value those relationships?
[Ed. Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant for Agora Inc. There's a lot you may not know about building an Internet business. David has the answers - and he'll be sharing them with an exclusive group of business builders at ETR's 5 Days in July conference. If you have the slightest interest in creating a fully functioning Internet business in one week, sign up for our hotlist right here.]
The aurora borealis (also known as the northern lights) is a phenomenon that produces a spectacular light show in the Earth’s northern polar regions. And the greenish glow, the result of microscopic particles colliding in the atmosphere, is sometimes accompanied by noise. Those who have heard it say it sounds like radio static or a crinkling cellophane wrapper.
The cause of the noise is not known, and it has never been recorded. According to Inuit folklore, it is the sound of dead spirits.
(Source: Damn Interesting)